Betty Allen

Biography

Betty Allen is a dance educator that serves as Lecturer in the Department of Dance and clinical instructor for the Early Childhood Education program in the College of Education.  She currently teaches Introduction to Contemporary Dance (DANC 100), co-teaches Teaching Dance (DANC 350), assists with the Repertory Company (DANC 232), and coordinates Artsful Teaching Through Integration (FAA 202). Betty is the Director for the Creative Dance for Children (CDFC) https://dance.illinois.edu/events/creative-dance-for-children/ program which offers dance classes for children in the community ages 4-10. The CDFC program is the laboratory for the Teaching Dance course and offers authentic dance teaching experience for University of Illinois dance majors. Most recently, Betty has presented workshop sessions at the Illinois Dance Education Organization (ILDEO) conference at Elmhurst University and the Children, Youth, and Performance conference in Toronto, Canada. Betty has participated in the Summer Dance Institute for Teachers (SDIT) at the Creative Dance Center in Seattle, Washington led by Anne Green Gilbert (https://www.creativedance.org/) and is a strong advocate for Gilbert’s work in Brain-Compatible Dance Education.  Prior to coming to the University of Illinois, Betty was an elementary public-school dance and drama instructor for over two decades and served as the elementary fine arts coordinator for Urbana School District #116.